Our Favorite Summer Activities

As I write this post, it is the end of March, and the promise of spring is in the air.  The mounds of snow that we had a few weeks ago have been replaced by multitudes of small lakes and streams, just waiting for the frost to leave the ground.  We normally don’t see such warm weather this early in the year, and it has excited an anticipation within my spirit.  This begins my very favorite part of the year, and I feel like a kid in a candy store, given a bunch of money to spend how I want.  It makes me start to imagine all of our favorite summer activities.

I saw my first robin today, even though I have heard their song for over a week.  They are always the first harbingers of the new life of spring, and just the sight of them brings joy to my heart.  So I am looking forward to the blue sky, green grass, humid weather, and the warm temperatures.  I can’t wait to get to summer and all the wonderful summer activities that fill our beautiful days.

In this post I am going to list our favorite ten activities that we do every summer.  Some are big, some are small, but hopefully one or two of them will spark more fun in your summer.

Camping

I love, on the spur of the moment, to say, “Let’s go camping this weekend.”  To prepare for camping takes a little bit of work.  We need to pack the clothes and the food that we need for the weekend, but once we are there, we feel free.  We usually don’t go very far, but we find an open camping spot somewhere near our house but far enough away to experience the feeling of adventure.  When we camp, I can relax, specifically because all of the items on my to do list are at home.  There is nothing calling me back to work.  We try to camp as often as possible during the summer.

Swimming

Swimming is something we do almost every nice afternoon.  We take our beach towels and our swim toys to the local pool and spend our afternoons swimming.  We purchase a family membership for the summer, and that allows us to spend as much time at the pool as we like. Bear Bear and Super Stuffy swim with their friends, and I can soak up the sunshine at the side of the pool with my friends.

Bike Rides

We live in the rural part of our town, with ten acres to our disposal, and access to several lonely gravel roads.  We love to ride to the nearest small lake, just down our gravel road, or even into town.  Sometimes we end our bike rides with a visit to our park to play for a little while.  If we are really ambitious, we might take our bikes into the city that is ten miles away from home and ride the bike trails.  Sometimes we ride by ourselves, but it is more fun with friends.  Our best friends attend school so we look forward to spending more time with them once they’re done.  Even before the pools open, we can enjoy the warmer temperatures on our bikes.

Geocaching 

Along with our bike rides, we enjoy geocaching.  It is the ultimate treasure hunt.  We use a geocaching app with a GPS tracker to find the posted caches around our area.  It is so much fun to find the caches, and sometimes the kids even get to find a small toy as a result of their search.  We sign our name to the cache log and enter in a small log on the app.  For this list loving mama, I feel immense satisfaction in signing my name and crossing each cache off my list.  We have already found many caches across our state.

Gardening

I do not have anywhere close to a green thumb, but I love to get into the garden, plant seeds, and watch them grow.  Over the years I have tried both vegetable and flower gardens, and I have finally realized that my idea of a vegetable garden will not work.  None of us like vegetables very much, so I have given up on that.  Last year I turned my vegetable garden into a strawberry bed, and we are looking forward to a wonderful harvest of strawberries.  My flower garden has stayed a flower garden, but I have populated it with perennial plants, just because I easily kill any flowers that I attempt to grow.  Even though I am not very good at it, I love getting in my garden.

Taking the dogs to the park

On days when it is not quite warm enough to swim, we’ll take the dogs to play at the park.  It gives the kids a chance to play at the park, and the dogs run and play as well.  Pete’s favorite game is to play fetch, and he will play until he drops.  The playground gives the kids a chance to play in a different manner than normal.

Canoeing

Once or twice a summer season we go to our local nature park and rent a canoe.  The kids and I grab the oars and row through the several small lakes that are contained within our nature park.  We love learning how to row and control the canoe, and interacting with the wild life that is present .  I love listening to and watching the birds, seeing the fish jump, and just hearing the movement of the water.  We can’t participate in this activity too often, but it is a lot of fun when we can do it.

Fishing

So far, we haven’t had much luck with fishing.  We’ve done it on days when it was too warm, and on rainy days.  We don’t catch much, but it is still fun to throw the line out into the water.  The fish that we catch are too small to keep, but there is a great satisfaction in pulling them in.  Unfortunately, the kids don’t have much patience to stay at it.  So although they are excited to fish, we don’t keep at it long.

Kids Camp

For one week during July Bear Bear and Super Stuffy go off to camp with other kids from our church.  It is the longest period of time that they are away from home during the year.  They love going away and spending that time with their friends.  They have described some of the games that they play and the sessions they attend.  I  love kids camp because it gives me a week off to plan, spend my time as I want, and to relax and refresh.  It allows my children time to make new memories and experiences. It also allows me that alone time that I need every so often.

Soak in the summer sun

There are some days when I just love to take my lawn chair, put my feet up, take my crochet outside and just soak in the sunshine.  There is something extremely therapeutic in being outside with the warm yellow sunshine and fresh green grass.  It allows me to slow down and just “be.”  Sometimes I wonder as moms if we don’t spend too much “busy” time.  It becomes so easy to lose ourselves in the busyness.  I love just being able to sit and reflect, maybe listen to some music, and slow down a little. 

These are our ten favorite ways to spend our summer.  Some of these summer activities we do simultaneously, some are special treats.  What are some ways that you spend your summer?  Please click below to let me know what your favorite summer activities are.  I will be writing a follow up post with all of your responses.  

Favorite Summer Activities